


waiting on a sunny day

by Ink_On_Parchment



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Aubrey really loves her alien gf, Body Image, F/F, Fluff, Women in Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-12-01 21:02:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20898188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ink_On_Parchment/pseuds/Ink_On_Parchment
Summary: Aubrey tilts forward, gets up on her tiptoes so she can kiss her. There’s a warmth in her chest that she only knows as love and the wildflowers blooming around them can attest to it.“Then what’s wrong?” She asks, and from this close she can see each micro-expression as Dani goes from content to anxious to resolved.“This is what I looked like on Earth.” Just like that, realization slams through her.





	waiting on a sunny day

**Author's Note:**

> For the fictober prompt: "Listen, really listen."
> 
> I love this ship A Lot.

Sylvain, even in this early spring era of her life cycle, is beautiful, and that is something Aubrey doesn’t think anyone will ever convince her differently of.

She can see the bare places: dark, twisted areas that the Quell ravaged, husks of trees that had stood for centuries, roadways laid in ruin. But everywhere they turn, there’s life. It’s isn’t just her powers either. It’s deep green moss growing on the cracks of broken structures and creeping, hardy vines crawling over downed trees. Everywhere they go, she sees things that have survived, and as they travel farther she starts to see sprouts of brighter, more fragile plants. Thin flower stems with bright petals reaching for light, new growth on tree branches, what is obviously the first fruit harvest many of these regions have had in years.

And then they sweep through, and while it’s fun every time she is and always will be in awe of the power Sylvain has given her. It’s enough, she knows, to just walk through and cast, but most days she reaches for Dani’s hand and they go running, bare feet in lush grass, as flowers bloom and trees come to life around them.

It is work, and they have not gotten anywhere near where they need to, but it is paradise.

They’ve stopped in a large meadow, surrounded by trees and the foot of a hill. There’s a pond near where they’ve set up their camp, and a road that looks like it hasn’t seen travels since even before the Quell. It is warm, she’s nurtured fruit trees into existence, and now it’s time to rest.

She catches Dani looking at her reflection in the pond, her eyes intent and her mouth set in a grim line. She wouldn’t think anything of it normally; they haven’t been in an area with mirrors in at least a week, so she understands. What makes her pause is the way her jaw goes from relaxed to tense and after a few seconds her shoulders are practically by her ears when as far as Aubrey can tell she’s as unharmed and beautiful as she’s ever been. Then she catches Aubrey looking at her over her shoulder and does a Duck-worthy performance of acting like she wasn’t looking at her reflection.

It makes something cold and spiky erupt in Aubrey’s chest.

She walks forward, stops just close enough to Dani to reach out for her hand. Her hand hangs there, palm up in the warm air, and she waits until Dani reaches out and interlaces their fingers, her eyes never leaving Aubrey’s face. Dani pulls her closer, and it’s impossible to keep the smile off her face when she does. The small grin Dani sends her makes the panic in her chest ease a little, but then Dani looks back at the still surface of the pond and her smile disappears.

“Hey,” she says, swinging their hands closer to her, “talk to me. What’s wrong.”

She smiles, just a little, and Aubrey’s heart thuds a little harder just like it does every time Dani smiles at her. Dani squeezes her hand, bites her lip with blunt teeth. “We’re in Sylvain. We live in Sylvain now.”

Panic floods through Aubrey like cold water. They’ve been here for a couple months, and they’ve been helping people that entire time. The scene of Dani making the decision to come back here flashes through her mind, as does every time she’s smiled at her since they’ve come back.

“Do you, do you regret it?” She has to know.

Dani scrunches her eyebrows, shakes her head a little bit. The obvious confusion on her face lifts a weight off Aubrey’s chest. “No. No. Of course not.”

Dani looks around, eyes catching on the grove of trees they’d watch grow into flower and the moss-covered edges of the pond. “This is what we’re meant to be doing, Aubrey. You’re—you’re bringing this place back to life, and I get to be here to see that. And yes, I would like to see our friends on Earth again, but Aubrey, I already told you, you’re my home. I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”

Aubrey tilts forward, gets up on her tiptoes so she can kiss her. There’s a warmth in her chest that she only knows as _love _and the wildflowers blooming around them can attest to it.

“Then what’s wrong?” She asks, and from this close she can see each micro-expression as Dani goes from content to anxious to resolved.

“This is what I looked like on Earth.” She says, and her brown eyes are staring right into Aubrey’s. “This is what I looked like _for _Earth. We don’t live on Earth anymore; we can’t even get there.”

And, yeah. Dani’s got blonde hair down to her waist that Aubrey has a hard time keeping her hands out of now that she’s allowed to play with it. She’s got brown eyes that look like amber, like gold, in the sunlight. Aubrey has lost count of the times she’s tried to count the freckles across the bridge of her nose, along her shoulders.

“You’re from Earth, Aubrey. I don’t look like this.”

The realization of what is happening hits her like a train, and she abruptly feels extremely unobservant. She’s seen Dani in her true form a few times, but it was few and far between. It had been easier before Agent Stern, but after he showed up no one really showed their true forms. The most notable time was during the shapeshifter debacle, right after Ned, and by that point she was too busy to take in too many details. 

She’s moving before she’s really thinking about it, pulling their hands up to chest height so she can take her other hand and undo the clasp that holds her illusion bracelet with gentle fingers. As soon as the corded bracelet leaves her skin the illusion is gone, Dani’s razor-sharp nails resting against the knuckles of Aubrey’s hand. When she looks up, Dani is smiling tremulously, too sharp teeth glinting in the sunlight. She opens her mouth, starts to say something, stops and shakes her head instead. Silver-blonde hair comes untucked from pointed ears.

She’s iridescent. 

“Listen, really listen to me. You stayed with me through the end of the world. I love you, _you_, and I have for a long time. Never think that you have to change a single part of yourself for me.”

Dani grins, eyes like molten gold, and brings their hands up so she can press a kiss to Aubrey’s knuckles. “I love you too, Aubrey Little.”

Aubrey catches a glimpse of them in the water out of the corner of her eye, backlit by the sunset, and smiles as they go tumbling into lush wildflowers.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!!


End file.
